Dear Reader,
Gaz Oakley is one of the most well-known plant-based chefs in the world. Millions of people have followed his journey from the kitchen to the garden – from the city to the countryside. He has published multiple bestselling cookbooks and inspired many to deepen their love of food and the natural world.
Gaz left a career in fine dining at 21, broken by 80-hour weeks and a job that left him no time or energy to look after himself. He took up weight training, ate protein shakes, went through heartbreak, and did what a lot of young men do when they feel lost: tried to build himself back up from the outside in.
The real shift came during COVID, when, like me, he started asking where his food actually came from. He left London, moved back to Wales, grew his first radish, and found something he had been missing for years. He calls it a nature deficiency.
This is a conversation about food and identity, about what it actually takes to nourish yourself, and about how a single plant growing in the ground can quietly change the way you see the world. We talk about professional kitchens, going plant-based, the difference between cooking and truly connecting with food, and why self-sufficiency turns out to be the wrong goal. There is also a moment near the end, when Gaz describes the natural cycle of his garden and how it helped shift the way he thinks about regeneration. His example really resonates with me and my own understanding of regeneration and circularity.
I hope you love it.
Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. The YouTube video is below.
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With love,
Finn
Queuing this one up!